Newbie

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(leawha @ Aug 16 2007, 12:11 AM) [snapback]496722[/snapback]</div>

JUST DRIVE IT.

Easy enough? In other words, some of us never bother to P&G and are quite content with MPG that is "only" in the low 50's in good conditions. More is possible. But the fact that it isn't necessary is the beauty of Prius.

 

Yeehooeey! New cars are always fun, especially when they're shiny, fancy, and full of gadgetey goodness. Obviously most of us <whisper>except the trolls </whisper> think that the Prius is the bestest ever...

Hmm...

1. There is definitely not a consensus on this one. I have seen both sides of this argument strongly contested. I would recomend searching the site, reading the long past arguments, and then deciding for yourself. I, personally, chose not to buy it, but I can certainly respect the others who chose the other way.
2. Yes, any dealer should be able to check this. As to how many body parts it will cost, that seems to vary greatly. If you get a good response and feel good about the dealer shop, great. If you get a bad feeling that they are pulling your chain, you can always post what they said. There are several really good techie types who can cross check it for you. Again, search the site for information on the suspension - you will probably find good suggestions already posted somewhere.
3. I'm going to bow out on that one - while I use P&G on a basic level, I certainly haven't reached the "enlightenment" level, probably because the roads and traffic patterns I and forced to drive limit how much I can use it.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(john1701a @ Aug 15 2007, 10:20 PM) [snapback]496725[/snapback]</div>

lol I think I've heard John say that before, somewhere... <whisper>It's okay to pulse and glide if you want to.</whisper> He is right, however. You can "Just Drive It".

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(leawha @ Aug 16 2007, 12:11 AM) [snapback]496722[/snapback]</div>

Chemical protection of the seats is a personal chioce. Do you have children that are likely to ride in the car? Do you have pets that are likely to ride in the car? Do you eat/drink in the car or allow others to? Are you or any of your likely passengers relatively clumsy? Only you can answer these questions and then only you know how much it is worth it to you to try and protect against potential stains.

I would expect that any dealership should be able to check the alignement and if it needs adjustment I can't see how that wouldn't be considered warrantee work. I have no experience with this, so hopefully someone else will chime in with an answer.

pulse & glide (P&G). . . .
Get used to your new car before you focus on this too much. There is much to enjoy and the car will bring a lot of satisfaction even if you never bother with this P&G hypermiling stuff. Pay attention to how the car behaves while you drive it for the first few tanks of gas, and then much of the P&G stuff you've been reading may suddenly make sense.

However, if you are just dying to understand, the basics seem to be:

1) Use the gasoline engine to accelerate the car up to some chosen speed less than 41 MPH.
2) Coast as far as you can without using the gasoline engine, or the battery, and without recharging the battery.
3) Repeat when the speed drops to where you are no longer comfortable traveling any slower in the given traffic conditions.

For step 1) the rule of thumb seems to be to push the accelerator pedal hard enough to accelerate the car and soft enough that if you glance at the display in the car while you are accelerating the MPG doesn't drop below 15 MPG.

For step 2) what you first need to realize is that if you just take your foot off the accelerator, the car begins a very gentle "regenerative braking" feeding power into the battery and slowing the car. If you push the accelerator just a very little bit the car will stop this and begin to "glide". At this point the gasoline engine is not spinning, and there is no power being sent to regenerate the battery. If you glance at the display in the car while you are driving (and not gliding) you will typically notice arrows from the various components (Engine to wheels, Engine to motor, motor to battery, battery to motor, motor to wheels). You will have a pretty good indication that you are in a "gliide" state when all of these arrows are "off" (not lit up and only the black bar background showing)

The entire distance you are "gliding" the engine is turned off and you are not burning any gasoline at all. The Prius can "glide" for surprisingly long distances without losing much speed unless you are headed uphill. This gets you additional distance while using no additional fuel.

 

Welcome to PriusChat, leawha! The cloth seats clean very easily, and regular cleaning keeps them looking like new. If you really want to treat them, may I suggest 303 High Tech Fabric Guard. 303 Aerospace Protectant is great for cleaning the interior plastic and exterior black plastic, too.

I agree with John, but for alignment as well. Some cars come with bad alignment, many do not. If after driving 1000 miles or so if you feel the car is pulling, take it to any Toyota dealer and get a free alignment during the first year/12,000 miles. Specs say 0° toe, but a tiny bit of toe-in on both sides helps the car track. Probably more important for a good ride is having your tires correctly inflated. Specs say 35 psi front/33 psi rear. Having 2 psi more in the front compensates for the greater forward weight. Many here run at 42/40, but it's a personal choice.

You do not have to P&G to get great fuel efficiency, and your FE will increase as the tires and HSD break in. Many see a jump in MPG at about 6K and 20K miles. The Prius will automatically train you to drive better if you let it.

 

Congrats on the new vehicle and welcome to priuschat.



Required reading.... go to this link and read about Prius power flow
http://priuschat.com/Introduction-to-Prius...low-t30286.html
The state of charge on the traction(HV) battery is controlled by a battery computer. The visible part of the battery you see is 40%-80%. The batt computer wants to keep the HV battery at 60%(5-6 blue bars) all the time. This is to maximize the life of the battery.
It is very hard to get your battery to 8 green bars unless you already have 6 blue bars and you go down a hill at approx 6% grade or better for about 3-4 miles(coasting preferrably). After this if you keep driving on a flat surface the car uses the excess energy to run MG2 to help power the car to draw the HV battery back down to 6 blue bars(approx 60%). If you have all greens all the time then the car has no place to store excess energy and must burn it up through resistors as heat to the environment. The HV battery is what starts your ICE(gas engine).
Read the 5 stages of operation here(click on the HERE link in the first post):
http://priuschat.com/index.php?showtopic=4...amp;hl=5+Stages

Ahhh. Blocking the upper grill. I blocked my upper grill for summertime but not the lower. It forces the ICE to operate at slightly higher temps which makes it more efficient. I do not recommend doing this unless you have the scanguage II to monitor engine coolant temps. Blocking the lower grill also during extreme cold months will also give greater FE. If you can not keep up with the lingo then you need to read this:
http://priuschat.com/index.php?showtopic=1...l=abbreviations
hope all of this helps. Read often and tell other drivers about this site.....very informative.

When people say "Pulse & Glide" most people think push the accelerator then coast to recharge the battery......
This is not the true intent of pulse and glide. It take some skill to do this properly.

1. PULSE Only pulse up to 40 MPH or below because at 41MPH the ICE will continue to run at 960 rpm even though the engine icon on your energy screen is not pink( lit up) to prevent MG1 from overspeeding. Yes I have the scanguageII and I have watched it countless times. If I am on a flat surface and doing P&G and get 41 mph by mistake then the ICE will not shut off(0rpm) until I reach about 37-38 mph so that is a few more seconds before the ICE shuts off and more fuel consumed. To prevent exceeding 40 mph on a down hill slope then do not pulse up to 40...make it less based on how long the hill is. I like to use regen to slow down if I know the rest of the down hill will take me where I want to go without more acceleration. While on this note I will say that above 45 MPH the wind drag kicks in greatly and gets increasingly intense the faster you are above this speed.

2. GLIDE. This is the point that you take your foot off of the pedal to force the ICE to shut off. Read the 5 stages of operation and click on the here link to help you facilitate when the ICE will and will not shut off based on what STAGE it is in. After you remove your foot from the accelerator you then must reengage the accelerator ever so slightly while watching the energy screen to observe a NO ARROWS CONDITION(not regenerating AND not providing propulsion...no green or yellow arrows). You might be thinking by now.....why is this so in depth??? It takes some SKILL, slight of foot or feather foot to accomplish this. You can not be eating, conversing on the phone and any other things while trying to stay in a P&G mode. It clearly takes some skill and knowledge to do this correctly. I am trying to provide you the knowledge and pass on the info I have for this. From now on when having a conversation about P&G you can pass the MPH threshold and No arrows conditions on so others know. When someone says glide in the future this is what comes to mind each time.

3 Do it all over again...try to watch for traffic lights and anticipate them so you can Glide. If you have a down hill ride home like I do for an entire mile prior to your drive way then you will master the downhill glide for battery recharge vs. no arrows glide condition. Good luck with this and keep us posted. If you feel this info is particularly useful and you have more input I will edit my post to accomodate your thoughts. Please advise through PM or click on my name and email me direct and please copy and paste the URL as I have many post so far on multiple threads.

 

B) Welcome to Priuschat and congrats on your car.

I would only suggest you take time to get familiar with the handling and sounds of the car. It's all too easy to find yourself looking at the "car info" screen. When I first started driving our Prius, I turned off the display to avoid distraction. After a few drives, I learned more about the displays and radio functions. This leads to the one thing many people don't do these days.... Read through the instruction manual. You will learn alot about your car which is unlike any other you've owned before.

When driving in a parking lot..... USE LOTS OF CAUTION. The car may be rolling by battery alone and is very quiet. Pedestrians may walk in front of you or behind you because they don't hear an engine. The reverse beep is not heard outside the car. (there is a way to de-program the beep which I found anoying)
That reverse camera is extremely wide angle. Practice with a soft traffic cone to get an idea of distance with the camera.

After a little while, you will get used to not puting a key in the dash or door (if you have smart key). You will find little ways to improve your mileage and you might find your drives less frustrating because of a
calming effect the car has (others on the forum have written about this).

There is a ton of information and advice on the Priuschat forums. Search a topic and you'll learn a lot about your new car, sometimes way-too-much from posters. The important thing is finding answers you need.

Drive safe, enjoy the drive - Nda3rdcar

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Danny Hamilton @ Aug 16 2007, 01:35 AM) [snapback]496733[/snapback]</div>

I don't think it could be put much better than that.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(leawha @ Aug 16 2007, 07:56 AM) [snapback]496816[/snapback]</div>

Welcome to the addiction! err... Prius-dom

I just got my car July 13 and i'm already approaching 4000 miles! I can't help but drive it! I'm offering anyone and everyone around here rides (they're even being nice to help pay for gas... although they're paying about the equivalent of $.20/mile B)

Again, welcome and just to forewarn you, the folks 'round these parts are generally friendly unless you ask a question that has been addressed multiple times (the search tool is a great way to prevent their wrath)

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(doubleg2005 @ Aug 16 2007, 09:42 AM) [snapback]496861[/snapback]</div>

At the 47 MPG I see in your sig. line and an average gas price of $3.00/gal. your fuel costs should be about 6.39 cents per mile. If they are giving you about 20 cents per mile you're pulling a profit of 13.61 cents.

Drive your friends 1000 miles a week and you can "earn" $136.10

Keep it up for a year and you'll "make" $7,077.20 Do that for a few years, and your friends will have bought your car for you

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Danny Hamilton @ Aug 16 2007, 10:11 AM) [snapback]496887[/snapback]</div>

even better was when my fiancee's boss needed me to run him a quick errand... they pay $.42/mi
at $.42/mi in a Prius, I could be a full-time driver for them...

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(leawha @ Aug 16 2007, 01:11 AM) [snapback]496722[/snapback]</div>

If the car pulls take it back to the dealer and ask for a print out of the alignment specs before and after. They won't do an alignment if there isn't a problem.

The car is a scratch magnet and the primer is white. Time for a clear bra (3M or VentureShield) and the rear bumper applique. Also consider black rubber strips across the bumpers.

Welcome to The Club.